CryptoPunk NFT To Be Divided Into 56,000 Pieces

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue capturing the imagination of the crypto industry, with some of the most popular and renowned projects attracting hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. A valuable CryptoPunk NFT is to be fractionalized as over 56,000 addresses sign up for a share of ownership.

Projects like CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) characterize the exclusivity of the most valuable and lucrative collections, with every NFT far from accessible to the average investors.

A new campaign aims to give a wider base of investors a stake in some of the highly valuable nonfungible tokens by fractionalizing ownership to reinstate accessibility. One NFT infrastructure that is powered by the Polkadot and Kusama networks, Unique Network, will divide the ownership of a CryptoPunk to over 56,000 addresses that have signed up for a share.

The campaign allows users to participate in what appears to have become a majorly siloed environment, as Unique Network CEO Alexander Mitrovich highlighted in a statement:

“This represents an exciting moment for interoperability. With our fractionalization of CryptoPunk #3042 we are heralding a new era of NFTs that are accessible, interchangeable, and can be shared across chains, and at a fraction of the cost.”

CryptoPunk #3042 was purchased for 46.95 Ether (ETH) ($82,000) by Unique Network in June 2022 as crypto markets plunged to yearly lows. Originally, the NFT had been sold for $16 in November 2018 before CryptoPunks became one of the highly exclusive Ethereum-based projects in the ecosystem and the trail-blazer for crypto art and nonfungible tokens.

Unique Network’s acquisition of CryptoPunk #3042 was targeting democratization of the asset and showcasing blockchain interoperability. There is no cost linked to signing up for a part of the CryptoPunk, which forms a segment of the company’s Punks for the People campaign.

After the addresses are airdropped with their individual refungible token, there will be considerably more owners of the single CryptoPunk on the Polkadot blockchain than the whole 10,000 original CryptoPunks powered by Ethereum.

Unique Network is also expected to fractionalize the ownership of one of its flagship Substrapunk NFTs. Inspired by CryptoPunks, Subtrapunks were the first nonfungible tokens to be minted on the Polkadot blockchain.